On Punk Genre Theory

Noel Murray’s, at times, brilliant music project Popless has reached week 17 and while I am often moved by his revelations, insights and second thoughts, this week’s column revealed an opinion I find difficult to side with.

While listening to the Germs, Murray states that they resemble UK punk more than anything that has come out of Los Angeles. While L.A.’s major punk bands constitute a sound that appears diverse, underneath lies a sound that is much more consistent. It is an error to classify Black Flag as L.A. They made their home in Long Beach with SST records, clinging more closely with San Pedro natives The Minutemen whose untraditional pop structures more closely complimented Greg Ginn’s jazz and classical background. Black Flag’s core was often raw and unnerving. Pre- Henry Rollins however, vocalist Keith Morris’s “I Don’t Care” and “Wasted” sound like versions of the Germs’s “Lexicon Devil,” the song Murray says is UK influenced and albeit "snappier and less assaultive."

Scouring Dangerhouse’s back catalogue, a label responsible for many of the early LA punk singles, one finds many songs closely resembling “Lexicon Devil” namely, songs by the Bags, the Zeros, the Dils, the Weirdos, the Urinals, and the Eyes. The rub I guess is that one of the only bands in L.A. not to sound like how the Germs sound on Lexicon Devil is, well, the Germs. Early songs like "Forming" and "Sex Boy" resemble dark Doors-inspired Black Angel Death songs, while later songs like “What We Do Is Secret” and “Richie Dagger’s Crime” are more influenced by Huntington Beach/OC style hardcore punk.